Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509290052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It seems that a couple times every year, usually around the time the NASCAR stars visit Martinsville Speedway, someone suggests that what Roanoke really needs is a racetrack.
Martinsville sells out its Winston Cup shows, and the weekly crowds at New River Valley and Franklin County speedways are considerable. There's no question that racing is a major sport here, and not just since the new asphalt was spread on the Roy Webber Highway.
So, Roanoke is getting a speedway with a 1.5-mile track. It will have 200 luxury boxes. It will cost about $100 million, or about $93 million more than the luxurious foot bridge that's anything but pedestrian.
The Roanoke speedway wants a Winston Cup race. It's likely to be on the Indy car schedule, too, because the quad-oval will have extenders in the turns so Indy cars won't have to run up the 24-degree banking.
The track probably won't open until late next year, and when it does, it will have 160,000 seats, with an eventual capacity of 260,000. The parking lot will accommodate about 95,000 cars. It will be built near the new interstate highway.
By now, you're probably wondering why Roanoke councilman Mac McCadden hasn't weighed in on this project, or why sports-minded Salem hasn't decided to beat Roanoke to the inside groove on the track, or why Roanoke County hasn't decided whether to build the speedway around a new high school or just forget the track and put 60,000 seats inside the new Northside High gym.
The impending opening of the Roanoke track isn't why Martinsville is adding 6,800 seats to take its capacity to more than 65,000. Martinsville president Clay Campbell isn't worried about his short track losing spectators to this new facility, either.
That's because this speedway is being built in Roanoke, ... Texas.
That would be the Roanoke with a population of about 1,700. Roanoke, a northern suburb of Fort Worth, is the address for Texas Motor Speedway, although the track's 100-acre plot is about three miles from the town.
Until now, that Roanoke's only connection to big-time sports was as the ranch residence of telecast analyst and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw. It probably won't be long before TMS gets a Winston Cup race, the first in the Lone Star State since the circuit left Texas World Speedway in College Station more than two decades ago.
Bruton Smith picked the Roanoke burbs for his gleaming new track, joining Charlotte Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway. CMS, AMS, TMS? The logos of the three aren't much different, either. The Texas track will include a Winston Cup garage area larger than the massive new one at Charlotte.
It's being built on what eventually will be the NAFTA highway. Racing's Roanoke may be a small town, but it's part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, an area big enough for Ross Perot, Jerry Jones, Deion Sanders, Nolan Ryan and Jim Copeland. It will put stock car racing into another major market. There's that Atlanta-Charlotte connection again.
The under-construction track already has been contacted by a film animation company that wants a Texas-sized race named for a cartoon character. The Speedy Gonzalez 600? The Bart Simpson 500? The Beep-Beep 400? The Tennessee Tuxedo 300? The Boo Boo 150?
It's coming to a Roanoke, but not near you.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB